I have a few simple things which has made me happy recently that I need to show you.

It’s my random joy!

For life has been quite busy around here as of late, the list is a little brief, yet happy, happy, happy… just like the trip to the nature shown above.

What a wonderful and magnificent statue. I love nice statues. This one looks so fairy-tale-like, doesn’t it?

On the home front, things have been fun too.

Choosing colors for a new project is always fun, just like this time.

This project has been keeping me quite busy this week.

I am slowly moving it from the realm of plans and ideas to reality.

I will share more details next week… for now, just a little sneak peek into a very messy phase of it all.

And last but not least, my current love, my gem, my darling, my sweet Tillbaka from Ikea. Isn’t it just cute?

Have a lovely weekend, dear friends!

Love,
Petra

The Happy Little Suns are back… this time with a picture tutorial.

I’d say that it’s quite simple to make them, the whole process requires only basic sewing and crocheting skills.

These are the needed supplies.

Felt: since each sun consists of two circles which measure about 4.2 inches (10.5 cm) in diameter, to make one sun you will need a piece of felt which measures about 9 x 5 inches (22 x 12 cm). Of course, you can create suns that will be larger or smaller than that.

Yarn: I have used sport weight yarn in beige color to embroider the face and worsted weight yarn in yellow color to crochet the border.

Crochet hook: G (4 mm).

Pen/marker, scissors, yarn needle.

A bowl:  I used one that measures about 4.2 inches (10.5 cm) in diameter. It is used to trace the edges of the sun.

Polyfill/toy stuffing: … pssst, I use cheap pillows from IKEA to get my polyfill. They cost only about $1 and they have tons of polyfill inside. Okay, maybe not tons, but it’s still a LOT!

1. To begin, place the bowl upside-down on the piece of felt and trace the edges of the bowl with the marker.

Repeat to mark one more circle.

2. Cut along the traced marks so you have two circles.

3. Draw the eyes, nose and mouth on one of the circles.

4. Using a sewing stitch which is called the chain stitch, embroider the eyes and mouth.

If you are not familiar with this sewing stitch, you can find plenty helpful videos on Youtube.com.

Then make two short stitches to embroider the nose.

5. Now, place the circles on top of each other, with the embroidered circle being on top.

With the yellow yarn and using a sewing stitch which is called the blanket stitch, join the edges of the circles. The blanket stitches should be placed about 1/4 inch (7 mm) apart. Before you finish joining the circles, leave a small opening through which your little sun will be stuffed.

You can make as many stitches as you like, but the final number needs to be dividable by 3!!!

My suns have 45 blanket stitches.

Again, Youtube.com offers lots and lots of videos on this stitch too.

6. Fill your sun with some polyfill.

And finish the sewing.

7. Now the crocheting part ensues (with US crochet terms being used!)…

Attach the yellow yarn to one of the blanket stitches.

To do so, make a slip knot and set it aside; insert the hook in random blanket stitch, then insert the hook in the slip knot…

… Then pull the slip knot through the blanket stitch,  yarn over and pull the yarn through the loop on your hook. And that’s our first stitch.

8. Continue with:

- chain 3, skip two blanket stitches, slip stitch in following stitch,

- *chain 4, skip two blanket stitches, slip stitch in following stitch*

- repeat the *…* part till the end of the round,

- then finish with one slip stitch in first stitch of this round.

9. In each ‘chain 4′ loop of previous round crochet a shell consisting of these stitches:

*1 single crochet – 1 half double crochet – 1 double crochet – 1 treble crochet – 1 double crochet – 1 half double crochet – 1 single crochet*.

Repeat the *…* pattern all around, then join with slip stitch in first stitch of this round.

Finish off and weave in the ends.

And that’s it.

In the previous post, I asked you about ideas on how these little suns could be used and you came with many awesome possibilities… and I thank you for all you all of them (you can find the suggestions in the comment section of THIS post).

For now, I only attached a simple short string/piece of yarn to the back side of two top shells and secured both ends of the string with a knot.

That way, the little suns can easily be hung anywhere you’d like.

And here’s a little picture roundup:

Enjoy!

Love,
Petra

This might easily be the most sinful treat I have ever made in my whole life.

Just imagine the luscious layers of crushed Oreo cookies, peanut butter and whipped cream mixture… with some additional whipped cream and chocolate on top. Magic!

Needles to say that here, in our house, we enjoyed this dessert a lot. In between the delighted oohs and aahs we managed to agree that we are allowing ourselves to have something similar in not less than a year. The calories and the sin, you know.

And you know what? We can’t wait until that day comes…
 

Here’s what’s needed for the magic to happen.

1. First, the Oreos… try to resist.

I did not.

Place the Oreo cookies into the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs.

2. In a small bowl, combine the cookie crumbs and melted butter.

Although the original recipe calls for the butter, when I make this recipe next time, I will try it without the butter. I think it will taste just fine and I will reduce the calories a little.

3. Stir to combine.

4. Evenly divide the crumbs between about five serving dishes.

5. In the bowl of your electric mixer with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form.

Transfer the whipped cream to a small bowl and place it into the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the filling.

6. Now some lovely and smooth peanut butter enters the game.

Place the cream cheese and peanut butter in the mixing bowl and beat until smooth.

7. Then add the confectioners’ sugar and the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

8. Stir the whipped cream into the filling mixture until well blended and there are no streaks.

9. Evenly pipe or spoon the filling into individual serving dishes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

If desired, garnish with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Enjoy, dear friends!

This tastes amazing!

(Recipe inspired by mybakingaddiction.com. Servings – 5.)

Hi, dear friends!

Lovely to see you again. I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Mine was very calm, good and colorful.

I decided to put a small dent in my felt stash and create these bright and cheerful ‘Little Happy Suns’.

I loved that project a lot.

They just bring a smile on my face every time I look at them.

I like them as they are but right now I am considering possible ways to use or display them.

I am thinking of hanging each little sun on the wall individually, or join them all with a beaded thread to turn them into a longer hanging wall decor… or making a garland out of them…

Or a baby mobile. I am sure they would look lovely as a mobile.

Do you have any other ideas? I’d appreciate hearing them. Do tell!!!

Oh… aaaand, I made a few pictures while they were being made… so I guess I will post a free tutorial soon. In fact, they are pretty easy to make with just some basic sewing and crocheting involved.

See you soon!

Love,
Petra

Hi, dear friends!

Lovely to see you here again! I hope you are doing fine!

Today, I am happy to introduce my newest crocheted creation to you – it’s Matilda The Owl!

Oh yes, if you know me for a little while, you’ve probably noticed how much I adore these little creatures called owls and how they hold a very special place in my heart.

There’s something so captivating and cute about them, don’t you think?

Maybe it’s in their eyes, I dunno, but what I know is that I love them to bits.

Anyhow, I had a great fun creating little Matilda. If you’d like to make one (or two, or ten) too, you can find the pattern in MY SHOP. It has a lot of pictures, as usual.

And you know what? Frankly, there’s another project brewing in my mind right now, aaand… I am afraid it will have something to do with the realm of owls too. See? I told you I’m obsessed. I can totally see it – there will definitely be a lot of colors and cuteness involved.

So, off to do some amazing hooky business…

See you soon!

Love,
Petra

What a perfectly written song!

In every single way!

I can’t stop listening to it. And I mean I CAN’T!

And besides, I think I have just found a very, very, very, very lovely item for my ‘curly collection‘, if you know what I mean…

Do you like it too? And I mean both – the song and the curls?

Love,
Petra

I failed this week.

Badly.

And then I recovered.

Quickly.

This is the whole story…

It all started with my sincere intention to show you a tutorial for the most adorable project I have stumbled upon recently – lovely chocolate cups.

There were supposed to be many colorful balloons that are dipped in melted chocolate and the chocolate is then let to firm up resulting in the, already mentioned, most adorable chocolate cups.

Theory sounded easy enough.

But… BUT (!)… after a short briefing from my boyfriend about the dangers of putting warm chocolate and rubber balloons together I ended up wrapping the balloons in plastic foil. Just to stay on the safe side, you know.

Though looking innocent and smart, this plan failed completely. The chocolate just wouldn’t adhere to the foil very well, that’s what I didn’t know before and know now… for sure.

Live and learn!

Well, failing needs to happen once in a while… that much I know. And you know what? I also know that a fail needs a good therapy – if possible, a very colorful and happy one. Because balance is important!

So there I was, with a color-and-cuteness-craving spot in my soul that desperately needed to be filled.

Whit this pressing feeling inside me, I found myself running to the nearest shop where I grabbed the most colorful thing in sight…

A wonderful, wonderful nail polish.

I just loved the shade of this pink.

And then I also loved the blue bottle.

And then I fell in love with the yellow… and red… and green too!

Aahh!

I looted that place.

Pure bliss!

I so recommend this brand… I just needed to let you know. It is pure perfection!

To make things even more awesome, the colors have very funny and cheerful names… like Aretha’s RESPINK for pink.

Or Blue Cara Ciao.

And Birdy Reloaded! He-he!

Bloody Mary To Go!

Or ACid/DC.

Who wants to say green if they can say this! Love it!

As I have found out right now, I am in desperate need of eight more hands – I would just like to wear all these beautiful colors at the same time.

Anyhow, this is the end of my little story.

And the moral of it all?

Well, do not expect your chocolate to adhere to your plastic wrap.

Or, no matter what, don’t you give up on you colors!!

Or, sometimes I just make very little sense, it seems…

Love,
Petra

Ta-dah!

Finally I can show you the project that I’ve been introducing to you through tiny little peeks in the past few weeks…

A Crochet 3D Flower Baby Blanket it is… and  I love it.

As I mentioned earlier, I had craved working on something bigger, a pattern that would repeat on and on and that would give me enough time to relax and have a good time.

And that is exactly what this blanket has brought into my life.

Although it took me about three weeks to complete it, to tell you the truth, I am very tempted to start another one, making a brighter and wilder variation of it this time. And then probably another one in yet another color scheme.

But I have to curb my enthusiasm because there are other projects on my list desperately waiting to be created…

And look, my little Toby fell in love with the blanket instantly. It was love at first sight.

Anyhow, if you like the blanket and would like to make one too, you can find the pattern in MY SHOP.

It includes 69 step-by-step pictures this time, my record so far, I think…

Enjoy!

Love,
Petra

Hello, dear friends!

I hope you are having a wonderful time and enjoying life’s little pleasures as much as possible.

Here’s what made me happy recently…

… Easter! Because during Easter one has a permission to eat as many chocolate eggs as desired. I live by this rule and I am loving it!

And more Easter!

Don’t you just love all the colors emerging everywhere around?

So energizing!

This is another thing that I am excited about – my fast growing crocheted project.

I have all parts done now. All 99 of them. Assembling ensues. Yaay!

This little celebration of mine!

And more chocolate… hehe…

The other day, while I was walking home, a little boy gave me this flower. I didn’t know the boy at all which made the whole experience very, very sweet.

A trip to the woods.

Nature is a constant source of amazement to me. Especially in spring.

And that’s it!

Have a wonderful, wonderful week, that’s what I wish to you!!!

Oh, and one more thing – I have just discovered a fantastic radio channel. It plays upbeat running music all the time. Although I don’t run at all, I love to use the music for other purposes… like… cleaning the house… or eating Easter chocolates… okay, and dancing a bit too…

To play the radio, just click this link: Fun Radio Running.

See you soon!

Love,
Petra

It’s incredible how quickly time flies, isn’t it?

Today, it is exactly one year since I opened my Etsy shop.

Frankly, that day I knew very little about how dear that place would become to my heart, how much it would motivate my creativity… and how my crochet patterns would make some of you happy… and all that happened… and made me very, very, very happy too.

I’d like to express my big THANK YOU for your loyalty and all your kindness! You are the best!!

Because many of you asked, and I’ve listened, today I have a new offer for you… you can choose any three patterns from my shop and you will receive them for a very special bundle price. All the necessary details about this offer can be found in MY SHOP.

The offer is not time limited.

And now I think I am going to celebrate with some eggnog. And right after that I am going to work on something new and colorful for you to enjoy…

Cheers!

See you soon!

Love,
Petra